New England

February, 2007
Regional Report

Shows & Events

Flower Shows, Gardening Classes, and More
Here's a New Year's resolution that's fun to keep: visit more gardens, attend more flower shows, take more gardening classes.

The New England Wild Flower Society has workshops and classes coming up in different locations around New England. (http://www.newfs.org/courses.html)

Oogle the garden displays and take workshops at the New England Spring Flower Show, March 11-19, at the Bayside Expo Center in Boston. (http://www.masshort.org/showpage2.asp?page=2_0)

Plan to visit gardens near you or while on vacation with the help of The Garden Conservancy's Open Days listings. Sign up to receive notices about gardens that will be open to the public. (http://www.gardenconservancy.org/opendays.html)

Favorite or New Plant

Bells of Ireland
Bells of Ireland (Moluccella laevis), with its unusual light green bells hugging the flower stalks, has enough personality to be a focal point, but its color makes it a good companion to many color schemes. The flowers are long lived in a vase, and the full, vertical flower spikes are valuable for their shape as well as their color. They also dry nicely, turning light tan. I especially like it growing with blue catmint (nepeta) and pink salvias.